Michael Hooper says the Waratahs pack must "get one over" the Brumbies to win the most important Super Rugby game of the NSW captain's career.

The Brumbies are the competition's most-effective converters of set-piece dominance to points this year. They have scored almost half their tries (25) from possession that stemmed from lineouts and a further 10 from scrums.

Not only that, the Waratahs set the Brumbies as their benchmark for physicality at the start of the season. While the minor premiers justifiably earned a reputation for a power game up front, they did so with their ACT rivals in mind.

Saturday's semi-final will be a clash of master and apprentice in that regard. Coach Michael Cheika's decision late on Friday to name six forwards and just two backs on his bench speaks volumes about what the Waratahs expect.

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"Our pack is going to be crucial in getting dominance tomorrow and getting one over the Brumbies," he said. "That's where the game is always won, [so] it's a massive, important part of it for us tomorrow."

Little more than a day before the Waratahs' beloved home ground is set to host a decade-high crowd of almost 40,000, Hooper was his relaxed self standing outside Allianz Stadium on Friday.

He happily admitted the semi-final was his biggest provincial game yet. But if there was pressure bearing on his shoulders, Hooper showed no sign of it.

"You've got to do it at some point," he said of the 80 minutes of do-or-die football approaching. "You have to be in these games at some point if you want to contest the title. We feel we deserve to be here and we've played really good footy in the last X number of weeks."

Departing Brumbies director of rugby, Laurie Fisher, said his side was guilty of being outworked and outmuscled when the Waratahs punished a weakened ACT outfit 39-8 a few weeks ago.

"Every time I hear Michael Cheika talk, and in every half-time speech, he's talking about physicality, so that says to me that physicality is going to be king," Fisher said.

"They're not a side that we're not going to be driving backwards. We've just got a strong focus on meeting them and that's where the impact is made, is where the game stops and restarts.

"It's not about bashing people, it's just about in those one on ones, two-on-two contests, that the game stops where the impact starts."

Hooper said the Waratahs had taken no notice of the round-17 pummelling.

"They are a completely different team from the last time we played them," he said. "They have played a different style of rugby during the last two weeks, but we have to take a lot from the game previously and the fact we're at home again."

NSW are unbeaten at Allianz Stadium this season and the Brumbies have not played there in six years.

"There's a huge hurdle in front of us tomorrow and one that, if we can put a good performance out, will put us in great stead for the next week," Hooper said. "It's a week-to-week process, we know that, but to have the Brumbies at home is awesome."